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Hotels: Fewer Deals but Low Rates

IF you haven’t booked a hotel for your summer vacation, don’t expect to see the same types of recession specials that hotels were offering last year.

Instead of generous “stay two nights, get one night free” offers, hotels are offering more modest, targeted promotions, often with lots of fine print attached. But the good news is that hotel rates haven’t really risen from last year’s lows — at least not yet.

“The average daily rate this summer will be almost exactly what it was last summer,” said Bjorn Hanson, associate professor at the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University. “So although the percentage discount might be less, the actual rate is still low.”

According to Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotel rates, the average daily rate in the United States this summer will actually drop 2 percent compared with last summer, to $95 a night. Because that’s a national average, it’s a lot lower than what most guests pay in popular vacation destinations — but even in those cities, prices dropped a lot during the recession. In the top 25 United States markets, average hotel rates peaked at $133 a night in 2008; the average so far this year is $116, about what it was in 2006.

Since hotels have been making less money and cutting back on services and staff, they are less likely to offer the rock-bottom discounts they rolled out during the worst of the economic crisis, when they were trying to entice anxious consumers to keep traveling. That means this summer’s deals feel less like a fire sale, and have more restrictions buried in the fine print.

For instance, Hilton’s “Great Getaway” sale promises 20 to 30 percent off some rates at 2,800 hotels worldwide if you book by July 15 for stays through Sept. 6. The main caveat is that you have to prepay for your reservation and that payment is nonrefundable. Another hitch is that the discount does not necessarily apply to each hotel’s best available rate; at some hotels, it can only be used with the “bed and breakfast” rate, which may be higher.

The lesson: always compare a sale price with the hotel’s “best available rate” before booking. You may have to call the reservations number and ask for the lowest price, since hotel rates can be cryptic online.

Other summer sales are more geographically targeted, like Marriott’s “Sand Dollars” package, which offers a free night, daily free breakfast and a $100 resort credit (subject to minimum-night stay and other booking conditions) at participating properties in the Caribbean and Mexico. These are both destinations where travelers are more likely to find deals this summer, hotel watchers say.

Independent hotels and resorts and smaller chains are also doing more targeted offers, such as Kimpton’s “Ride the Rails” deal. Guests who book in advance with the RAILS code and present a train ticket at check-in can get 15 percent off the best available rate at more than 30 Kimpton hotels, and yes, tickets on trains from the airport into the city count.

Most hotels post these types of promotions on their Web sites, but HotelChatter.com is a good one-stop source to learn about which chains and properties are offering deals. Mark Johnson, HotelChatter’s founder, said Miami and Las Vegas are two United States cities where he’s still seeing lots of discounts. The site also tracks new hotels offering special opening rates — typically, around 20 percent off — but you have to act fast to score a bargain, since the best deals can disappear quickly.

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Rachel Harris

“I saw an opening rate for $179,” Mr. Johnson said. “I went two days later to book it, and it was up to $300.”

The faster pace of sales has meant that Twitter is becoming a more important way to track deals. By following sources that stay on top of specials, like HotelChatter, you can sometimes find out about sales before a hotel’s e-mail subscribers get the message. Booking agencies like Quikbook.com, which specializes in independent and boutique hotels in big cities — with some prices under $200 in Manhattan this summer — are also turning more to Twitter to spread the word about special rates.

Brian Hendricks, Quikbook’s marketing director, said that once or twice a month, he announces sales on Twitter and Facebook that don’t appear on Quikbook’s Web site until later in the day — or not at all if the discount applies to a limited number of rooms.

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“Sometimes they sell out and we never put them on our Web site,” he said.

Although he was skeptical at first about using Twitter to entice customers to book hotel rooms, Mr. Hendricks has found that tweeting judiciously is the best strategy to reward loyal followers, and keep them from getting annoyed. “If they get a tweet from us, they know it’s going to be good,” he said. “We don’t inundate them with mediocre stuff.”

Quikbook has also joined the ranks of hotel agencies that are putting their own spin on Priceline’s blind booking model — without the bidding process.

With Quikbook’s “secret sale” collection, you don’t find out the name of the hotel until after you book. You just see the price (usually between $149 and $169 a night, Mr. Hendricks said), a detailed list of amenities and a description of where the hotel is located (for example, the “Eastside of Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood”). The drawbacks are that you have to prepay and that reservations can’t be changed or refunded.

Travelocity is another agency now playing the we-can’t-tell-you-the-name game. If you book any of its “Top Secret Hotels,” you get up to 45 percent off, but you can’t change or cancel your reservation, and you find out only the price and basic details about the hotel — such as whether it has a pool or a free breakfast — before you book.

Paying attention to which hotels are offering free amenities is another way to save, particularly since fees for things like parking, breakfast, gyms and Internet access can add a lot more than small change to your final bill.

HotelChatter does a yearly round-up of hotel chains that have free Wi-Fi, and this year found that more companies are courting their gadget-toting guests by including free Internet access. Among the big names on the free Wi-Fi list: Holiday Inn, Peninsula Hotels, Standard Hotels, Hotel Indigo, Courtyard by Marriott, Residence Inn, Best Western, Four Points by Sheraton, Hyatt Place, Element, Aloft, Red Roof Inn and Hampton Inn.

Other brands, like Omni, Fairmont, JDV, Wyndham and Kimpton, offer complimentary Internet access to guests who are members of their loyalty programs, which are free to join. Even if you don’t think you’ll ever earn enough points for a free stay, it’s worth signing up. Hotels often give members perks, like the two free snacks Kimpton lets its InTouch guests raid from the minibar, and free Internet access.

“Wi-Fi is just becoming more like a utility,” said Michael Depatie, Kimpton’s chief executive. “Do guests pay to plug into an electrical outlet?”

Not yet, but with free versus fee shaping up to be the big battle in the travel industry, let’s not give anyone any ideas.

A version of this article appears in print on June 6, 2010, on Page TR3 of the New York edition with the headline: Hotels: Fewer Deals but Low Rates. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe